Ambassador Scharioth is Germany’s highest-ranking representative to the United States Government. His main tasks are to represent German interests in the United States and to foster and deepen German-American relations in the political, economic, and cultural spheres.

Scharioth, who holds MA, MALD, and PhD degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, has served in the German Foreign Service since 1976. He has held numerous posts, including chef de cabinet (director of the private office) to the secretary general of NATO. In that capacity he worked on an array of issues, including the creation of the Permanent Joint Council with Russia and issues arising out of NATO involvement in the Balkans. In the mid-1990s he served as head of the Defense and Security Policy Division of the Foreign Office, and later as the head of the Foreign Office’s International Security and North America Directorate. From 2002 to 2006, he served as state secretary, the Foreign Office’s highest civil service post. He has served as Germany’s ambassador to the United States since that time.